Residents’ experience with nightlife noise

Letter by
Palladium resident:

Purchasing
a condo at the Palladium was an exciting event in my life (first
home!).
When I first moved into my condo in March 2008, I loved spending
time in
my home and inviting friends over on the weekends for dinner or to
socialize.

However,
in the last couple of years, the sound of club music has become
intolerable. I no longer want to spend time in my home on
the weekends, much less invite friends into my space. I am
ALWAYS
kept awake from Thursday - Sunday by the loud pounding music coming
from the
nearby rooftop clubs. The noise is so loud that I often tell
friends that
it is as though Rhianna performs in my living room every single
weekend.
I can hear - very distinctly - every word of whatever song is
being
played, and precisely whatever the DJ shouts over the
microphone.

This
level of noise pollution cannot be legal and I am frustrated by the
lack of
response our community has received in trying to address this
issue. I
used to call 911 quite often, but have never noticed any appreciable
reduction
in noise following my calls, so I've stopped trying. I now sleep
with a
floor fan blowing at hurricane forces in a futile effort to drown out
the
pounding bass music. Ear plugs have also failed to mitigate the
effects
of this noise pollution or to improve my ability to sleep through the
loud
music on the weekends. This is unacceptable. I believe I
have a
right to live in my home without the constant intrusion of loud,
pounding bass
music.

I
do not believe that it is unreasonable to expect one's home to be
a private space, free from outside intrusions like pounding
dance music at 2:00am.
I
work incredibly long hours and when I am able to be home, I simply
want to
relax. This is no longer possible. I have started traveling
out of
town as often as possible so that I don't have to deal with the
noise.
When I am home, I am deeply distressed both by the noise, as well
as by
how helpless we are to reduce the noise

e-mail from Palladium resident

thanks
so much for your time, research and expertise in putting
this White Paper together! Thank you just does not seem to be
adequate.

On
Friday and Saturdays I take a valium to calm me down
from the anxiety and resentment of the outrageous interruption of
peace
and quiet coming from the clubs on Connecticut. Then when I go to
bed, I
turn on the bedroom TV to try to ignore heavy bass beat. It
starts and
may go on for 2-3 minutes and the beat stops, giving me a false sense
of
relief. But it only starts again louder and more intense and my
anxiety
increases. In the mean time, I have wax ear plugs that I put in
my ears
to warm them up, so that by the time I think I am going to go out of my
mind,
the was plugs have softened and I can push them further into my
ears.
Sometimes pushing them in is painful, but the alternative is no sleep.

I
have 5 packages of earplugs in the drawer of my
bedside table as I have several times gone to CVS and they are sold out.

I
too have called 911 with no positive result in reduction
of noise. And told twice by 911 that I would have to call the
local
police. We will not give up the fight on this. It is a
blatant
violation of the law.

A third resident was so disturbed that she got out of bed at 1 AM on
Friday night, went down to Club Central, found the club playing the
music that awakened her, confornted the manager who dismissed her
request to turn down the volume; next night she went back to the club
at 1AM with a police officer and an ABRA inspector both of whom
declared that there was nothing they could do.

Residents across the city are suffering
from the stunning levels of amplified music that sometimes exceed 93
decibels – the sound of a metro train roaring past.

There is something they can do: order the music turned down or off.

Are you suffering from amplified sound? Write to us at
contact@dcnightlightnoise.com.

If you have a story of serious noise trouble
from Club
Central late-night business, write us at contact@dcnightlifenoise.com.
Please give details as the effect on you, what time of day, nature of
the
bothering
noise, response of the ABRA and /or police enforcers if you called them.Please give us name and address, although we
will not use your name if you ask us not to.